


A penny for the Old Guy

by dearwhimsy



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Aftermath, Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-21
Updated: 2012-08-21
Packaged: 2017-11-12 15:07:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/492545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dearwhimsy/pseuds/dearwhimsy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the end, there are no heroes or villains.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A penny for the Old Guy

It seemed like the punchline of some bad joke that after everything, after Stane and the palladium and Vanko and the goddamn Chituari and all the assorted villains and dangers since, after all that he’d gone through, the book on Tony Stark would end with some stupid punk with a gun and bad nerves.

Clint slinks silently into Tony’s workshop, suppressing his shiver at how quiet and abandoned the place suddenly felt. Where was the heavy metal that Tony likes ( _liked_ )? Or his distracted one sided-conversations or JARVIS’s ever polite greetings?

Clint strides to the couch where Cap sat with his head buried in his hands. Hesitantly, he sits down beside him and struggles to find the words that would help make sense of it all.

“I…” He begins and ends.

What was he supposed to say? Sorry he’s dead? Sorry he died like that? Without meaning or purpose, just shot down by some common idiot while out for burgers with a friend?

As a SHIELD agent, Clint has learned the hard way that people died, often in stupid and senseless ways, because someone made a mistake or because of sheer bad luck, it’s what people do. They die. Yet somehow, even he cannot make bring himself to accept that this is how a legend, an Avenger and a hero goes out. He can’t accept that this is how _Tony_ ends up kicking the bucket.

The silence between them stretches out for long moments before Cap finally asks, disturbingly calm, for him to leave. Just leave him alone. Clint stares down at his bowed head, grief written in every weary line, and stays.

Cap takes one shuddering breath and then another. He begins to speak, every word torn from him in a low urgent tone.

“I could see the bullet moving towards him you know. Just a blur in the air headed straight for him and I couldn’t—” He chokes, “couldn’t move. Couldn’t stop it.”

It’s all Clint can do to not flinch away from the misery and grief wound up tight in Cap’s every word. He begins to regret coming down, regrets staying. He doesn’t want to know how Tony died or the how Cap _hurts_. His mind screams for him to leave but duty and some sort of horrified curiosity holds him in place.

“The man didn’t even know who we were at first,” Cap continues, “Not until Tony turned around and he just pulled the trigger and ran. I can still see it, just a neat little hole in his forehead and he looked so surprised…”

Clint can’t help but look away, hands curling into fists as he struggles to tune out the details. This isn’t what he came down here for. He can’t recall his reasoning for it anymore but this wasn’t it, not this, this macabre retelling of how it all happened. He stares up at the ceiling and wonders if JARVIS is listening in.

“I didn’t even catch the man that did it.” Steve laughs without humor, guilty and bewildered. “Just stood and watched him run and Tony fall and fall and—”

“Enough!” Clint snarls, breathing harshly. Steve falls silent. They have nothing more to say that either were willing to hear.

So this was how it ends, Clint thinks looking around the silent workshop, this is how it ends.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are appreciated~
> 
> Title is from the dedication of TS Eliot's poem 'The Hollow Men'
> 
> P.S. Anyone spot the Sherlock reference?


End file.
